Wednesday, 3 May 2017

Asylum seeker attacks his wife with hammer because she forgot to cook his dinner

A Pakistani seeking asylum in the UK might have put his chances in
jeopardy after he launched an attack on his British wife whom he met on
Facebook.
Mohsin Ahram, 21, attacked his wife, Mariam Hussain, 20, with a
hammer when she forgot to cook his dinner, leaving her with multiple
injuries.The court heard that Mohsin was drunk when he attacked
Mariam and she begged him to stop but he refused and shouted:

"You've
had your chance to be a good wife!".

It was also heard that Mohsin
treated his wife like a prisoner in her own home and abused her for
months. He forbade her from leaving the house alone, owning a mobile
phone or having access to the Internet or social media.

Addressing
the court, the full-time mother-of-one said that she always knew an
attack was coming but never imagined it would involve two hammers. On
the day of the attack, which occurred in their one-bedroom flat in
Cardiff, UK, Mariam had fallen asleep at about 10 p.m. on Dec 23 and woke up hours later when Mohsin returned home drunk and in a rage in the early hours of December 24th.
He hit his wife with one hammer first and then two hammers in a
separate attack while their four-month-old baby was asleep in the
bedroom. He also smashed her Amazon Fire 7 tablet which was her only
link to the outside world.

The attack lasted for about 60 minutes before
Mariam was finally able to run out of the flat under the guise that she
needed to top up the electric metre, then once outside, she pleaded
with three girls for help. The police were called and they arrived to
find Mohsin, who had filed a missing persons' report at the time, pacing
outside on the street, saying he was looking for his wife.

Mariam
was treated at the University of Wales Hospital the following morning
for injuries, including bruising and cuts to both arms, mid back and
fingers. Amelia Murphy, one of the girls who helped Mariam when she
escaped, said that though it was dark, the cuts and bruises on her body
were visible. Mohsin was charged to court. During the court hearing,
Stephen Donoghue, who was prosecuting, said:

"The prosecution say
he was expecting her to have made him food. That was the genesis for
the argument that ensued. The prosecution say he completely lost his
temper and started to talk about teaching her a lesson, how to be a good
wife. He then picked up one of the hammers and began hitting her, she
put her arms above her head to protect herself.

"The prosecution
say that she was pleading with him to stop, telling him that he was
hurting her. He said 'you've had your chance to be a good wife'."

Defending
Mohsin, Andrew Kendall, revealed that Mohsin fled Pakistan after his
schizophrenic brother burned down the family home in Lahore, destroying a
copy of the Quran in the process which enraged locals.

During the sentencing, Judge Tom Crowther said:

"On the night of December 23
last year you left her and your infant son at home to go out
socialising. When you came back, you were plainly intoxicated and
aggressive. You roused {her} from her sleep, complained loudly about the
fact she had not cooked for you, made upsetting comments about her
appearance and her behaviour as a wife.

"It seems to me you
wanted not a real person but some imaginary figure who not only would
bear your children but would constantly dote on you. So angry did you
become that your life didn't correspond to this teenage fantasy that you
started to belabour {her} with a hammer, first one then two in a
sustained attack that left her badly bruised all over her body and
deeply shaken.

"During the attack on her in a gesture clearly
designed to isolate her and underline your control over her, you made a
point of breaking a tablet computer that was the only link she was
allowed to the outside world."

This will not be the first time
Mohsin is being convicted of assault. In 2015 he was convicted of
battery following another attack on Mariam and was handed a community
order. and was sentenced to 15 months in jail at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday
after pleading guilty to Assault Occasioning Actual Bodily Harm (ABH)
and criminal dama. He also pleaded guilty to production of a Class B
drug and criminal damage and was in breach of the community order
imposed in 2015. He was also slapped with a restraining order.

Meanwhile,
Mariam is furious that the judge chose not to exercise deportation
powers and she is calling on the Home Office to review his asylum status
once he is released from prison. Speaking after the sentencing, Mariam,
who has filed for divorce, said:

"The judge
could have said he is to be deported but didn't. There are so many
reasons why he should be deported. He is an asylum seeker, but actually
went out of the country last year. He has the stamps on his passport,
how can they let an asylum go there, come back and continue life
as normal? I was pregnant at home, he left and broke the baby's money box
and went to Pakistan partying, he was there for three weeks."

She
added:

"We met on Facebook and the first time we saw each other was in
August 2013, we used to keep our relationship on Skype before we met. At
the time his appeal was still in progress, his asylum status had not
been granted. His higher tribunal hearing for his appeal, because he's
under social services, was separate. By November 2014 he started
discussing it with me and he started pressuring me to enter into a civil
partnership, ready for this tribunal. After we got married in February
2015, that's when the real abusive relationship started..

In May 2015 his
tribunal came, I went there and helped him with it. He presented me as
his wife and that he had been in a general relationship with me since
2013, so it looked good as well."

It is not yet known if the Home Office will heed Mariam's request and review her estranged husband's asylum status.